Heppner Gazette-Times, Heppner, Oregon Wednesday, February 12, 2025 -- SEVEN
Mustangs lose close game to
TigerScots
Lady Mustangs move up in
BMC ranking
Mason Orem #23 grabs a rebound against
two TigerScot defenders. -Photo by Tara
Eakin Proudfoot
Delaney Stefani #12 taking the ball up court
during her first game back from an ankle
injury. -Photo by Tara Eakin Proudfoot
The Heppner Mus-
tang boys’ varsity bas-
ketball team lost a tough
home game against the
Weston-McEwen Tiger-
Scots by the score of 50-49.
The Mustangs, (7-13,1-
7) have two Blue Mountain
Conference games left in
the regular season. This
week they travel to John
Day to play a make-up
game for the game that was
canceled because of weath-
er. They then finish with a
home game against the Irri-
gon Knights this Friday. It
will be senior night, and the
seniors on both the girls and
boys team, to go along with
a senior band member, will
be honored before the start
of the boys’ varsity game.
Against the Tiger-
Scots, a close game that
ended with a first quarter
Keaton Coiner #10 goes up for a shot while
TigerScot defender tries to block. -Photo by
Tara Eakin Proudfoot
score of 9-9, continued to
stay close as the Mustangs
held a slim 23-21 lead at
halftime.
Weston-McEwen out-
scored the Mustangs 15-14
in the third quarter and the
Mustangs led the game
37-36 as the fourth quarter
started. Heppner pushed
their lead to five points mid-
way through the quarter,
but the TigerScots quickly
caught up. The Mustangs
still led the game 49-48
with two minutes left in the
game. Furious play by both
teams saw the TigerScots
score a basket late to take a
50-49 lead. The Mustangs
got a shot off with just sec-
onds left in the game, but it
did not connect. Heppner
lost the game by the score
of 50-49.
Mason Orem led the
team in scoring with 16.
He also had 10 rebounds
and two assists in the game.
Caleb George scored 11
points, had three rebounds
and one assist for the Mus-
tangs. Keaton Coiner had
seven points, five rebounds
and blocked one shot, while
Gage Heideman also re-
corded seven points and
had four rebounds. Joseph
Albitre scored four points
and had four rebounds and
one assist for the team, and
with two points each were
Alakae Rodriguez and Cay-
lan Proudfoot. Rodriguez
also had four rebounds and
one assist while Proudfoot
had four rebounds and four
assists. Marty Medina tal-
lied four rebounds and had
two assists for the team.
Ramos, Knutz take top spots in junior high meet
Aidden Ramos and Brody Knutz of Heppner both topped the podium at the Central Mid-
dle School wrestling tournament last Saturday in Milton-Freewater. Paisley Cutsforth (not
pictured) also made a good showing at the tournament, placing third in her weight bracket.
-Contributed photos
Heppner junior high
wrestlers Aidden Ramos
and Brody Knutz both took
the top spots in their weight
classes in last Saturday’s
tournament in Milton-Free-
water. Paisley Custforth,
Heppner’s sole female ju-
nior high wrestler at the
Central Middle School
Tournament, also made a
good showing, placing third
in her weight bracket.
Cutsforth, wrestling
in the 95 and 100 weight
bracket, started out slowly,
losing by fall to Ella Risteen
of La Grande in the quar-
terfinal match. She came
back with a vengeance in
the consolation round one
match, though, pinning La
Grande’s Kaelyn Roe in
only 54 seconds. She then
went on to defeat Edith
Peck (Weston-McEwen) in
the consolation semifinal
and Kamila Rangel (Riv-
erside) in the third-place
match, both by fall.
Brody Knutz domi-
nated the 95-pound class,
pinning Sam Larsen of
The Dalles in only 13 sec-
onds in the quarterfinal
match. He beat Asa Winters
of Echo by fall (1:12) in
the semifinal. In a tougher
championship round, Knutz
won by technical fall (20-3)
over Kason Barnes of Echo,
securing the championship.
He scored 25.5 team points.
Wrestling in the 125
weight class, Aidden Ra-
mos also dominated the mat
last Saturday. He pinned
Graysen Cain (Sunridge)
in 20 seconds in round one
and Matteo St. Claire (La
Grande) in 11 seconds in
the quarterfinal. He then
pinned Riverside’s Vinicio
Sanchez in 53 seconds.
The championship round
was tougher and longer,
but Ramos still managed to
defeat Thomas Jayne of La
Grande by fall. He scored
28 team points.
In other results, Frank
Di Salvo wrestled in the
95-pound bracket. He was
defeated by Cash Akes of
Weston in the quarterfinal
but rallied to take down Gus
Hawks (La Grande) in con-
solation round three. His
run for third place ended
when he lost to Echo’s Asa
Winters in the consolation
semifinal. He scored four
team points.
Jaxson Wight, wres-
tling at 102, easily pinned
Leo Meier of Sunridge in
round one. His hopes for the
championship were dashed
when he lost a tough match
to Myles Snook of Mil-
ton-Freewater. Wight went
on to beat Fisher Murray of
La Grande in consolation
round two before pinning
La Grande’s Alex Verdugo
in a mere 21 seconds during
consolation round three.
Another tough match saw
Wight lose the consolation
semifinal in an 11-6 deci-
sion. He scored 10 team
points.
Dylan Scherrer, in the
110 bracket, had a tough
day on the mats, starting
with a loss to Preston Hen-
dricks (Central) in round
one. He then lost by major
decision (19-9) to Jamyson
Bartell (Sunridge) in conso-
lation round two.
Jayden Macias, wres-
tling at 132, also suffered
double losses, losing by
fall to Westin Loiland of
Sunridge in the quarterfi-
nal and Wesley Thomas of
Weston-McEwen in conso-
lation round two.
Rounding out the day
was Haden Cimmiyotti.
Wrestling in the 175 and
190 bracket, he quickly
pinned As Yarofaitog (La
Grande) in a 14-second
quarterfinal bout. He then
lost to Sunridge’s Clay
Somnis in the semifinal and
Tonu Fanene (The Dalles)
in the consolation semifinal.
The season is nearly at
an end for Heppner’s junior
high wrestlers. With a light
tournament schedule for
the next few weeks, they
will be preparing for district
championships March 7-8
at Riverside High School
in Boardman.
The Lady Mustangs
toppled the second-place
team in the Blue Mountain
Conference with a 51-41
win over the TigerScots last
Saturday. This places the
Heppner team at number
two in BMC rankings, and
sixth in state 2A ranking.
The Lady Mustangs
took an early lead over the
Weston-McEwen team,
leading 16-8 after the first
quarter. Lily Nichols led
in scoring with five points.
The TigerScots tried to
close the gap in the second
Hallee Hisler #2 getting some air vs
Weston-McEwen TigerScots. -Photo by
Tara Eakin Proudfoot
quarter, but the Lady Mus-
tangs held on to their lead,
making the score 27-17 at
the half.
Delaney Stefani was
back on the court after an
injury kept her out for sev-
eral games. She scored four
of her 10 game points in the
second quarter.
Weston McEwen went
on a scoring spree in the
third, making 14 points to
Heppner’s 11, to cut the
Heppner lead to 38-31 at
the end of the third quarter.
However, Heppner
again outscored the Tiger-
Scots 13-10 in the fourth
quarter, securing the win
and taking the second-place
BMC ranking from the
Weston-McEwen team.
Hallee Hisler led Hep-
pner with 12 points, while
Nichols had eight. Healy
Hisler and Maya Payne
each finished with five.
The Heppner girls are
now 5-3 in the BMC and
14-6 overall. They will host
Irrigon this Friday at 6 p.m.
Friday will also be senior
night for the players.
Mustang JV dominates TigerScots
The Heppner Mustang
Junior Varsity boys’ basket-
ball team won its only game
of the week by defeating
the Weston-McEwen Tiger-
Scots by the score of 53-23.
The JV Mustangs ran their
season record to 10-3 with
the victory. The JV boys
have one game left on their
season schedule, and that is
at home this Friday against
the Irrigon Knights.
In the game with the Ti-
gerScots, Heppner jumped
out to a big lead early in the
game. The Mustangs led at
the end of the first quarter
16-3. The TigerScots out-
scored the Mustangs 8-6
in the second quarter but
Heppner had Weston-McE-
wen doubled up at halftime
22-11.
Heppner had a great
third quarter that saw them
score 20 points in the quar-
ter. They held Weston-McE-
wen to only 10 points and
led at the end of three 42-
21. Another close fourth
quarter saw the TigerScots
outscore the Mustangs 12-
11. That led to the win for
the Mustangs by a 53-33
score.
Jace Wilson had a big
game for the Mustangs as
he erupted for a game-high
28 points. Gage Heideman
YOUR AD
COULD
BE
HERE!
Call
Heppner’s #12 Jace Wilson and #22 Darby Spivey try to
block a shot from a TigerScot player in their decisive
victory. -Photo by Tara Eakin Proudfoot
played a quarter and fin-
ished with 10 points and
had multiple rebounds.
Tripp Stewart had eight
points in the game, and
177 N. Main
P.O. Box 337
Heppner, OR 97836
Chris@sykesrealestate.net
Darby Spivey was next
with four. Rounding out the
scoring for the JV Mustangs
was Mason Haugen with
two.
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